Sunday, January 30, 2011

Creating a 3D Pop-up Book

I have learned about a very interesting tool that helps you create a 3D pop-up story or even a book. It is ZooBurst The creation of a story is very easy, you can sign up for a free acoount and the tool looks like an interesting one, so I've decided to share with you my first attempt.

I've created only one scene to illustrate the last topic I discussed with my students:



To get started, you just click on"New Book" and then"Build" button. Then you choose the title for your story. You can find the right images by simply typing the key words of your story and getting nice images from ZooBurst gallery, or you can upload your own. After selecting, moving, rotating the images and creating a scene, you add text bubbles to your characters, which appear as exclamation marks above their heads until you click on them to read them. You can choose colours for the background and create more pages. When you have told your story, you save it.
Pro account gives your some more attractive options, like adding sound to your stories, but it seems you can create great stories with a free account, too.

There are two things I liked about ZooBurst:
  • you can easily embed your story
  • instead of just enjoying the book by reading it or looking at the illustrations, your readers can choose Webcam Mode to experience your book in Augmented Reality: the button turns on your webcam and you see yourself as if in a mirror, with a part of the story you were reading when you turned it on. You can print the mixed reality scene, too.

ZooBurst seems like a tool my students would love. I'll definitely use it in the classroom.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

My new animoto

Animoto is a very easy tool to use. The registration is free and you can create 30 - second videos with music. You can also apply for Animoto Edu and create your full length videos for free. That's what I have done.
Creating a video consists of three steps:

  1. you upload photos and decide if you want to add any text and where. Then you put your slides into the order you want to tell a story. It's a simple drag and drop activity.
  2. You choose music for your video. You can upload music from your computer, and you are reminded to respect the copyright. I always choose from the songs already offered by Animoto team. I find it easier and they have a lot of beautiful songs in different styles.
  3. You check that you have everything you wanted (the right title, tags, etc) and click "Create". Then you only wait. The video is created for you.



    This is the animoto I have created to introduce myself in Digital Storytelling Group of TESOL EVO. Please be gentle in your comments.


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Glogster

Look I have created a Glog!!! I feel so happy! I have learnt to do something new!!!

http://annaconway.glogster.com/anna-conway-glog-5650/

Thank you Lora and Thank you EVO!!!

Monday, January 3, 2011

EVO session

Hello to everyone! :)

I have just been approved for PLEs and PLNs EVO session and Podcasting session. Has anyone joined those? Sanja, which one(s) are you doing?